Create a group

A group in Trellis is a roster, a schedule and the leaders who sign in to it. Office staff and admins create groups. A group's leaders can then keep its profile, schedule and roster up to date.

Make the group

1. Open Groups and press New group.
2. Type the Group name, for example "Tuesday Night, Midtown".
3. If your church has more than one kind of group, pick one under Kind of group.
4. Choose the day under Meets on and the start time under From. Until (optional) is the end time.
5. Add a Neighborhood if it helps people place it.
6. Under Leaders, as shown, type the names the way people should read them, like "Marcus & Dana Reyes".
7. To give the leader access now, fill in Leader’s name and Leader’s sign-in email.
8. Press Create group.

Trellis opens the group's Schedule next, so you can add its meetings. If you gave a leader's email, Trellis sends them an invitation, and they see the group when they sign in.

Fill in the profile

The profile is what people read on the group's About page and on Find a group. Open the group, then Profile (office staff also see Edit at the top of the group).

• Who it’s for, in a sentence (shown on Find a group): one line about the group, like "Young families in Midtown, kids welcome".
• About this group: the longer description, up to 2,000 characters, read on the group's About page. Say what a night looks like, what you're studying, what to bring, childcare and parking. Leave a blank line between paragraphs.
• Who can join: Men, Women or Anyone.
• Stage of life: tick any that fit: College, Young adults, Married / couples, Parents of young kids, Empty nesters, Seniors 60+ or All ages.
• Language: English, Spanish or Bilingual (English and Spanish). Left unchosen, it's English. This is the language the group meets in; Trellis itself is in English.
• Leave Who can join or Language unchosen and Trellis works it out from the group's name and sentence, and says what it found under the choice. Stage of life starts with what it found already ticked; untick any that don't fit, and with none ticked the group has no stage of life. These three are what Find a group and the office's list of groups filter on.
• Usually at, Neighborhood and Address: where it meets.
• Coach: a name, if someone coaches the leaders.
• Status: Open to new people or Not taking new people.
• Room for: how many people it holds. Once the roster reaches that number, the group shows as Full.
• Childcare: Not offered, Offered or Families bring kids.

Press Save. The group's leaders can edit the profile too. Only office staff change Kind of group.

Add a header photo

A group can have one photo. It goes across the top of the group's pages, and faintly behind its card on Find a group and the office's list of groups. Only people signed in to your church see it. Leaders and office staff add it on the group's Profile, under Header photo.

1. Press Choose a photo, or drop one on the box. JPG, PNG or WebP; wide photos work best.
2. Trellis makes it smaller and saves it straight away. The camera's location in the photo is left behind.
3. Drag the circle onto the part of the photo that matters most, or tab to it and use the arrow keys. That part stays in view however the photo is cropped.
4. Under Describe the photo, say what it shows, like "A long table set for supper". It's read aloud to people using a screen reader.
5. Untick Show the photo faintly behind the group’s card to keep it on the group's pages only.
6. Press Save photo.

Pick a place, a table or a meal rather than people. Leave people's faces out, and never use a photo of children. Replace puts up a different photo, and Remove photo takes it down and deletes the file.

Add its meetings

On the group's Schedule, press Add weekly meetings, pick the First date and How many weeks, then press Add dates. Plan a group's meetings has the rest: events, weeks off and notes.

Add people

Open the group, then People.

• Add a person adds one at a time, with their phone, email, household, birthday and address. Press Add to the roster.
• Add several adds a batch. Office staff can tick people under From the church list. Anyone can type new people in rows, and you can paste a list into a first-name box, one person a line. Pick the Joined date, then press the button that says how many you're adding, like Add 3 to the roster.

Someone typed with an email that a person in your church already has is matched to that person, so you don't get two records. You can add up to 60 people at once.

Groups is free for small churches

Groups is free for up to 25 people in groups. That counts everyone on a roster, members, leaders and coaches, but not guests, and each person once however many groups they're in. Past that, Trellis tells you before it adds anyone, and an admin can turn on More group members under Church settings, then Parts and billing. See Pricing for what it costs.

Sample groups

If the Groups page says sample groups are included, press remove them in that line to clear them. Your own groups stay.

Remove a group

Office staff can remove a group from its Profile with Remove this group. Trellis asks first, and the group's roster, meetings, attendance, resources and photo go with it; the people stay in People. This can't be undone, so export its attendance first if you want a record. If a group is only pausing, set Status to Not taking new people instead.

Still stuck? Ask Silas